The Lewandowsky Incident

I have avoided critique of Lewandowsky’s paper because I am still awaiting a reply from Lewandowsky on my demand for removal of a false citation. He has agreed in part that the citation was inaccurate but due to some minor sophistry in his reply there is delay in finalizing the issue.

It seems that his attention is now focused on the basic errors in his methodology, which apparently could have been picked up by anyone with even the most rudimentary skills in the field. Odd that in this case his the lack of addressing of the basic sampling problems of an on-line study, singularly biases the study toward a more positive conclusion that skeptics are conspiracy nutters … right?

It has gotten so bad that he has taken to snipping Steve McIntyre’s very reasonable questions at the Lewandowsky “science” blog.

Who would have guessed.

I have been at this for 4 years now and I think we have the cycle down. Why don’t the extremists ever learn how to handle questions?

toto@club-med.sosaid

It seems that his attention is now focused on the basic errors in his methodology,

Is it ? The post you link to seems mostly composed of moderation-related whining.

Or are you referring to SteveMc’s spectacular post in which he went as low as to argue that only a minority of conspiracy-agreers were skeptics – “forgetting” to mention that so were a minority of the respondents in general? If Gavin pulled the same kind of trick you’d go berserk on him.

singularly biases the study toward a more positive conclusion that skeptics are conspiracy nutters

You made that up.

Hint: look at what happens to the conclusions when you remove all respondents who answered “4” to any of the conspiracy questions (answer: nothing).

Follow the money. Here is a comment I got at my blog about following the money on a different subject.

I was doing some follow-up research on Julison and happened upon this page(yes, here it is Sept. 11, 2012, and the Zimmerman case has NOT gone away).

In this blog entry you mention “some one claiming to be a lawyer…” That was my post and I am in fact a lawyer in California.

The foundation for my comment on the WHY and MOTIVATION lawyers on cases retain PR people was from personal observation since 1985, specifically in my seeing and understanding why lawyers were motivated to retain (very expensive) publicists or PR firms to work on particular cases.

Lawyers don’t “do PR” to obtain justice for the client. Ultimately, lawyers use PR outfits to make money. (And PR outfits are a business too. They don’t take on causes and work cases for free. They have bills to pay, families to support, kids to send to college, and want to be able to buy nice things.)

Out-of-context: Julison took down his “Julison Communications” pages. Screen captures I have of the deleted pages show Julison marketing his services to lawyers, a 2011 relationship with attorney N. Jackson (who is working with RJ against Zimmerman), and bragging up his work on the Trayvon Martin case) I will let those pages speak for themselves on WHY Julison, Jackson, and Crump had a business relationship.

There’s an old saying that lawyers modify and tell PROSPECTIVE clients who are trying to retain the lawyer. It goes something like this:

“I understand your desire for an apology from ________ and wanting justice, but my office is a business with overhead to pay. Unfortunately, obtaining apologies does not pay the bills, unless I would be content running a legal clinic at K-Mart. As an attorney I can get you MONEY. Eventually you will see money is a significant apology even though ‘I’m sorry” is rarely said by a wrongdoer.”

Attorneys Crump and Jackson did NOT hire Julison to obtain justice for Tracy Martin, Sybrina Fulton, and Trayvon Martin. Everyone entered into a business relationship to MAKE MONEY.

(If the motivation was NOT to make money then I am sure there are no contracts (retainer agreements) between Crump and Martin/Fulton, and Julison and whoever. Of course those agreements exist because it would be bad business not to have a contract binding someone like Tracy Martin to pay you money when the anticipated million dollar settlements start rolling in.)

And make no mistake, Crump and Julison (the main co-conspirators) did not invest significant time and money in the Trayvon Martin case (labor, hard costs, employees, leases, vendors) because they wanted “justice for Trayvon Martin.”

Naturally, when the exact attorney/client and publicist/client contractual relationships are revealed Crump will simply say: “What I meant by justice is that I would be obtaining money for my clients. You should know too that my clients intend to give most of the money to charity. That is, the 30% of any recovery they have remaining after paying taxes on parts of the settlements and our 60% contingency fees and costs.”(Crump won’t tell media the last sentence🙂

Lastly, take note that six months after the shooting my statements (allegations) have been proven correct. (Crump, et al., are in it for the money). How else to explain Crump is still around, even though he is not an attorney of record in the case. And Crump, et al., have fabricated evidence, tampered with witnesses, obstructed justice, and worked the media.

And over time notice how Crump, et al., have kept changing their theories of the case. Specifically, they have gone from:

“We just want an arrest, we want to know what happened;” to

“Two shots were fired by Zimmerman, one to injure this (angelically portrayed) child walking with candy and ice tea, a second shot to execute this unarmed cherubic child.” to,

“Race is the 600 lb elephant in the room; Zimmerman is a racist, the police are racists, the state attorney (Norm Wolfinger) is a racist; dad Robert Zimmerman is a racist, anyone who supports Zimmerman is a racist;” to,

“We don’t know if Zimmerman is a racist or not;” and,

“Zimmerman profiled this young black man (what happened to the child?) because he was wearing a hoodie (aka “hoodie profiling”);” and,

“Zimmerman’s MO is to ‘take the law into his own hands’ by calling 911 when he sees what he thinks is suspicious activity by black people.”

Further evidence indicating it is all about the money:

– Sybrina Fulton made a financial claim against Florida’s victims assistance fund. (It is beyond the scope to discuss how Sybrina does not qualify to make a claim under the requirements/criteria listed by the state.)

– Fulton is the defendant on a declaratory relief action by Travelers Insurance, the E & O carrier for people who serve on The Retreat at Twin Lakes board or association. This is because Fulton has either made a claim to collect on the insurance policy or intends to make a demand. (Sidenote: IMO all courts should issue stays on any actions or claims filed by Fulton/Martin until there is a disposition on Zimmerman’s motion to dismiss where if the case is dismissed he gets immunity from civil suit. Immunity will have a ripple effect on all claims Fulton/Martin intend to make.)

I can envision Lewandowsky as the Dr. Venkman character in the Ghostbuster series. Smart-alecky, educated but not toooo educated, and taking advantage of everyone around him to the best of his ability. The only problem for him is, Ghosts aren’t real.

Mark Tsaid

It is scary to think that Lewandowsky believes his own writings. There has to be some money in it for him, because otherwise he is a complete idiot. It seems that people would do anything for money, no matter how stupid that is.

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